News

On March 30, 2017, Wolf Greenfield achieved a victory in the Eastern District of Texas on behalf of clients N. Harris Computer Corporation, QuadraMed Corporation and Picis Clinical Solutions, Inc., electronic health records software companies sued by a non-practicing entity (NPE). By working with a joint defense group to file an early dispositive motion asserting that the patents at issue were directed to ineligible subject matter, the firm was able to deliver a cost-effective victory over an NPE that has succeeded in targeting numerous large players in this litigation and in prior litigation.

The two patents at issue relate to the organization of medical data and the use of formulas in structuring the organization of electronic health records. Clients N. Harris, QuadraMed and Picis were sued for patent infringement along with five other companies by Uniloc USA, Inc. and Uniloc Luxembourg S.A. in the Eastern District of Texas. Uniloc has a history of litigation related to these same patents, previously targeting 28 additional companies in prior patent-infringement actions in the Eastern District of Texas and Central District of California.

N. Harris, QuadraMed and Picis took a stand against this NPE, joining other members of the joint defense group in filing a Section 101 motion against the two asserted patents. The group leveraged the court’s decision in the prior Uniloc litigation related to the patents at issue, highlighting that the court had previously invalidated a single, independent claim of each patent. The group then sought to invalidate the patents and all asserted claims in the current litigation, arguing that the patents were directed to abstract ideas lacking inventive concepts, and therefore the case should be dismissed for lack of patentable subject matter per the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Alice v. CLS Bank.

District Judge Robert W. Schroeder III agreed, holding invalid all of the asserted claims against all of the defendants and granting N. Harris, QuadraMed and Picis’ motions to dismiss.

The Wolf Greenfield litigation team (which included Michael Albert, Hunter Keeton, Marie McKiernan and Austin Steelman), working in close cooperation with the joint defense group and the clients’ in-house team (Gina Martin and Damir Karaturovic), was gratified to achieve this victory for our client.